The Audacity of Regenerative Hope:
13 Lessons from Planting Community Forests for a More Bountiful Future.
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.”
— Reinhold Niebuhr
The annual return of the Perseid meteor showers signals a turning of the seasons. Signs in the heaven are mirrored by ominous rumblings from the atmosphere, earth, and oceans. Yet the existential threat of climate change is drowned out by the crises of the present. The summer of Covid-19 has heightened fears of political disintegration and racial fragmentation. Service workers, essential medical personnel and many government employees have felt like sacrificial lambs. Record stock market values in the midst of economic collapse and a global pandemic mock the pain of lost lives, jobs, and communities. Meanwhile politicians desperately compete for screen time and higher office. Virtual conventions struggle for viewers in the midst of untold private grief.
